1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to improved email communication service and in particular to facilitating composition, presentation, and monitoring of electronic mail messages with reply by constraints.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic mail (email) continues to provide a key method of communication between users across the world, where access to the Internet or other network is available. Many email systems receive emails addressed to a particular user and deliver the emails to a computer system at which the particular user is logged in to receive delivery of emails. An email application or web browser executing on the computer system typically receive delivery of emails and present a selectable entry for each email in an inbox. A user may select to open an email from by selecting the entry for that email in the inbox. In addition, the entry for each email in the inbox may include graphical indicators showing whether the email has been opened and whether the email has been replied to.
Many users will receive large volumes of new emails in an inbox each day. With a large volume of emails in an inbox, a user may not be able to open each new email each day. Further, with a large volume of emails in an inbox, a user may open emails, but loose track of which emails the user needs to reply to. Even though the inbox may include graphical indicators of those messages already replied to, a user cannot tell just by looking at entries within the inbox which entries were just for reading and which entries need to be replied to and by when a reply would be timely.
Some inboxes allow users to create separate folders outside the inbox and move emails from the inbox into a folder, for purposes of organization. While a user may create a folder for messages that need to be replied to, to actually use the folder, the user must then open each email message, evaluate whether the email message needs to be replied to, and then drag the email into the folder. When a user receives a large volume of emails, manually opening each email, evaluating what folder to place the email within, and then dragging the email to the folder is a limited, time intensive solution that requires user performance.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would have advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for facilitating user selection of a reply by date on the sending side and then automatically organizing emails with reply by dates within the inbox of the recipient, such that the recipient can quickly view within the inbox those emails which need to be replied to each day.